The Art of Border Crossings: Integrative Multidisciplinarity in the Natural Sciences and the All Atom Model of a Native HIV Capsid

Abstract

Those of us engaged in active experimental research careers rarely have the opportunity to step back from the lab bench or the computer to reflect on how scientific practice has changed, what kinds of interactions have proved effective, and how to begin to articulate the features of successful research. In the field of Structural Biology, which is in practice deeply inter‐ and multi‐disciplinary, research at the interfaces of traditional disciplines, such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics is essential for addressing the most important problems. If future progress in the natural sciences depends on escaping from the restraints of narrowly disciplinary language and frameworks, as I believe it is, then we will need new approaches and language to negotiate these boundaries and teach the ‘art of border crossing’ to young scientists. In my talk I will present an example of research carried out by a team of scientists that hail from different fields. Using solution NMR, MAS solid state NMR, crystallography, cryoEM and large‐scale MD simulation permitted the construction of all‐atom models for the hexamer‐of‐hexamer and pentamer‐of‐hexamer elements that make up the HIV‐1 capsid core, which, in combination with cryo‐ET, allowed us to derive a realistic all‐atom model for the entire capsid.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.